The present invention generally relates to methods, systems and apparatus for facilitating gratuities when payments for services are charged to accounts in electronic transactions.
When a customer makes payment to a service provider for a service for which a gratuity customarily is given, often a lull occurs when paying with a card. Exemplary such service providers include, but are not limited to, restaurants, massage parlors, taxi companies, bars, spas, nail salons, and hair salons. The service provider (sometimes called a merchant in this context) must authorize the original amount for the service and present to the customer a printed document bearing the amount to be charged for the service for the customer's approval by way of the customer's signature. At this stage, the customer makes a gratuity calculation and adds the gratuity to the document and totals the amount to be charged to the customer's card. It is believed that upon receiving the signed document with the total amount to be charged, the merchant reauthorizes the new amount and the new amount thereafter is charged to the customer's card. As will be appreciated, this process can be characterized as inefficient for requiring an undue amount of time, and can cause dissatisfaction and stress to the customer if the customer is in a hurry. Moreover, having to calculate a gratuity and then add the gratuity to the amount being charged for the services can cause delay and result in stress and dissatisfaction with the payment process. In the context of a restaurant, it is indeed inconvenient for a customer to have to perform mathematical calculations after a relaxing meal, especially after having consumed alcohol. Calculating the gratuity and then adding the gratuity to the amount charged for the services also can lead to errors, resulting in overpayment or underpayment of the gratuity that is intended to be left.
Indeed, it is believed that there exists a high incidence of assigning too little or too large an amount to the total transaction because of human error and/or errors associated with rounding. Tipping too little hurts a merchant, because expected gratuities are often times factored into the wages paid to employees of the merchant, and so inadvertent errors by customers may directly and adversely affect the income of the merchant's employees. On the other hand, unintentionally over tipping harms the customer.
One solution that has been utilized includes printing on the document that the customer signs a plurality of amounts equal to certain gratuity percentages. An example of this solution is illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, wherein a sales receipt for restaurant services is illustrated in FIG. 1 and a corresponding sales slip for payment thereof by a credit card is illustrated in FIG. 2. As shown on both of these printed documents, a “Quick Guide” table sets forth three instances of gratuity percentages; the corresponding amount of each gratuity percentage based on the food and liquor sales (i.e., tax is excluded); and the corresponding total to be charged to the credit card for each of the gratuity percentages. The three gratuity percentages presented in the “Quick Guide” table are 15%, 18%, and 20%; the corresponding gratuity amounts are, respectively, $19.50, $23.40, and $26.00; and the respective resulting totals are $160.39, $164.29, and $166.89.
While this solution provides some benefit, it is believed that the Quick Guide table calculations are made by the Point of Sale (POS) terminal when the document is printed, and that the POS terminal is preconfigured to print the amounts corresponding to the gratuity percentages predetermined by the merchant (in the example, the predetermined percentages corresponding to15%, 18%, and 20%) each time a sales receipt and credit card transaction slip are generated. Consequently, it is not believed that the percentages can be customized or established by each customer nor tied to the particular cards of the customers that may be used to pay for the services. Moreover, it is believed that such Quick Guide table calculations are in limited use and, therefore, of limited benefit in overall electronic transactions.
In view of the foregoing, it is believed that an improvement is needed in how gratuities are calculated and added to the amounts charged in electronic transactions. Such need is believed to be addressed by one or more aspects of the present invention.